Kwame Kwei-Armah was born in London in 1967 as Ian Roberts. Aged 19 he changed his name after tracing his family history back to Ghana via the slave trade. He trained at the Barbara Speke Stage School and found fame as an actor in the long running medical drama Casualty (1999-2004). He wrote his first play, A Bitter Herb in 1999 while writer-in-residence at the Bristol Old Vic. The play focuses on a racist murder in London and foreshadows the themes of violence and alienation that resurfaced in Elmina’s Kitchen (2003), produced at the National Theatre. That play portrayed life in Hackney’s ‘Murder Mile’ through the experiences of a black family and their gangster friend. Kwei-Armah became the second black playwright to be produced in the West End when Elmina’s Kitchen transferred there. Elmina’s Kitchen was followed by Fix-Up (2004) and Statement of Regret (2007), also produced at the National Theatre. His next plays, Let There Be Love (2008) and Seize the Day (2009), were produced at the Tricycle. Kwei-Armah is a vocal campaigner about the need to increase the profile of black writers and established the Black British Theatre Archive at the National Theatre to document every Black British play produced in Britain.  In 2011 he became Artistic Director of the Centre Stage Theater, Baltimore. Kate Dorney